MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a state of emergency on Thursday after Typhoon Kalmaegi left at least 114 people dead and more than 100 missing in central provinces in the deadliest natural disaster to hit the country this year.
The deaths were mostly from drowning in flash floods and 127 people were still missing, many in the hard-hit central province of Cebu. The tropical cyclone blew out of the archipelago
on Wednesday into the South China Sea.
Authorities in Vietnam, meanwhile, braced Thursday as Kalmaegi approached. The country’s financial hub, Ho Chi Minh City, faces a heightened risk of severe flooding as high tides would coincide with the expected heavy rainfall from the typhoon, forecasters warned.
High tides are expected on the Saigon River, while parts of the city could see up to 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain, which authorities warned could inundate low-lying areas.
In the Philippines, the typhoon’s onslaught affected nearly 2 million people and displaced more than 560,000 villagers, including nearly 450,000 who were evacuated to emergency shelters, the Office of Civil Defense said.
Marcos’s “state of national calamity” declaration, made during a meeting with disaster-response officials to assess the typhoon’s aftermath, would allow the government to disburse emergency funds faster and prevent food hoarding and overpricing.
While still dealing with the deadly and disastrous impact of Kalmaegi in the country’s central region, disaster-response officials warned that another tropical cyclone from the Pacific could strengthen into a super typhoon and batter the northern Philippines early next week.
Marcos said the combined impact of Kalmaegi and the approaching new typhoon covers about two-thirds of the archipelago and that the state of national calamity declaration would help the government provide the needed scope of emergency response.
Among the dead attributed by officials to Kalmaegi were six people who were killed when a Philippine air force helicopter crashed in the southern province of Agusan del Sur on Tuesday. The crew was on its way to provide humanitarian help to provinces battered by the typhoon, the military said. It did not give the cause of the crash.
Kalmaegi dumped about one-and-a-half months' worth of rainfall in just a day on Tuesday in metropolitan Cebu, state forecaster Benison Estareja said.
It set off flash floods and caused a river and other waterways to swell in Cebu city and outlying towns. The resulting flooding engulfed residential communities, forcing residents to climb onto their roofs, where they desperately pleaded to be rescued as floodwaters quickly rose, provincial officials said.
Rampaging floodwaters submerged or swept away scores of vehicles in Cebu's residential enclaves, in shocking scenes that were caught on camera by residents stranded on roofs.
At least 71 people died in Cebu, mostly due to drownings, while 65 others were reported missing and 69 injured, the Office of Civil Defense said.
Officials added that 62 others were reported missing in the central province of Negros Occidental, which lies near Cebu.
“We did everything we can for the typhoon but, you know, there are really some unexpected things like flash floods,” Cebu Gov. Pamela Baricuatro told The Associated Press by telephone.
The problems may have been made worse by years of quarrying that caused clogging of nearby rivers, which overflowed, and substandard flood control projects in Cebu province, Baricuatro said.
A corruption scandal involving substandard or non-existent flood control projects across the Philippines has sparked public outrage and street protests in recent months.
Cebu was still recovering from a 6.9 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 30 that left at least 79 people dead and displaced thousands when houses collapsed or were severely damaged.
The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. The country also is often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.
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Associated Press journalist Aniruddha Ghosal contributed from Hanoi, Vietnam.
